Editing interactive motion capture data for creating the interaction characteristics of non player characters

Abstract

A system includes a processor configured to provide an immersive virtual environment wherein first and second users can view and edit interaction data corresponding to interactive motion capture for first and second performers who interact with one another in a performance corresponding to the interaction between first and second characters, so as to edit the interaction between the first and second characters and thereby provide edited data corresponding to the performance.

1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 providing interaction data corresponding to interactive motion capture for first and second performers who interact with one another in a performance corresponding to the interaction between first and second characters, and   providing an immersive environment   
       wherein first and second users can view and edit the interaction data so as to edit the interaction between the first and second characters and thereby provide edited interaction data corresponding to the performance. 
     
     
         2 . A method as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the interaction data is provided by a given functional relationship between movement of the first and second performers, and wherein the editing of the interaction data modifies said given functional relationship. 
     
     
         3 . A method as claimed in  claim 2  wherein the functional relationship is provided by a statistical machine learning algorithm. 
     
     
         4 . A method as claimed in  claim 2  wherein the said given functional relationship at least in part includes a Dynamic Bayesian Network. 
     
     
         5 . A method as claimed in  claim 2  wherein the given functional relationship at least in part includes a Hidden Markov Model. 
     
     
         6 . A method as claimed in  claim 2  wherein the given functional relationship is at least in part provided by a conditional random field technique. 
     
     
         7 . A method as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the immersive virtual environment is configured so that a third user can view and edit the interaction data to provide edited data corresponding to the performance. 
     
     
         8 . A method as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the editing of the interaction data is performed iteratively. 
     
     
         9 . A system comprising: a processor configured to provide an immersive virtual environment wherein first and second users can view and edit interaction data corresponding to interactive motion capture for first and second performers who interact with one another in a performance corresponding to the interaction between first and second characters, so as to edit the interaction between the first and second characters and thereby provide edited data corresponding to the performance. 
     
     
         10 . A system as claimed in  claim 9  including an input to receive the interaction data. 
     
     
         11 . A system as claimed in  claim 9  including a display device operable to provide said immersive environment and controls operable by the first and second users to edit the interaction between the first and second characters displayed by said display device. 
     
     
         12 . A system as claimed in  claim 11  wherein the display device is operable to display metadata corresponding to the interaction data to facilitate editing thereof. 
     
     
         13 . A system as claimed in  claim 11  wherein the display device comprises: a head mounted display, near-eye light field display, waveguide reflector array projector, lenticular display, liquid crystal display panel, light emitting diode display panel, plasma display panel or cathode ray tube. 
     
     
         14 . A computer program product including: a non-transitory computer readable storage medium that stores code operable by a processor to provide an immersive virtual environment wherein first and second users can view and edit interaction data corresponding to interactive motion capture for first and second performers who interact with each other in a performance corresponding to the interaction between first and second characters, so as to edit the interaction between the first and second characters and thereby provide edited data corresponding to the performance. 
     
     
         15 . A computer program product as claimed in  claim 14  operable to receive the interaction data corresponding to interactive motion capture for first and second performers who interact with each other in a performance. 
     
     
         16 . A computer program product as claimed in  claim 14  including a multi user editing module which controls the viewing, annotating and editing of the interaction data.